Tag Archives: BID

Tomorrow is the annual Taste of Georgetown street festival. It will again take place on Wisconsin Ave. between K and the canal. And as always, the beneficiary of the event will be the valuable Georgetown Ministries, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The event will go from 11 AM to 4 pm. For $5, you get one ticket to sample some food. $20 buys you five tickets. There will be a beer garden again this year, offering craft beer and fine wines.

If you drop enough money (for a good cause!) you may walk away finally figuring out what Georgetown tastes like.

For all its quaintness, Georgetown is only ok when it comes to holiday decorations, particularly with the retail stores. True, most stores try to dress up a little, but it could be so much better with a bit more effort.

And the BID is trying to kick start that effort. Right now they’re running a contest for 15 stores to compete for the best holiday decoration. Apparently the contestants are limited to using only four pieces of material, which has lead to such entrants as a dress made of macaroons.

You’re supposed to vote by going to the BID’s Facebook page and “liking” the best window, but when GM checked last night there wasn’t anything on the Facebook page about the contest. So maybe they’re still working out the kinks. Continue reading →

From 2008 till 2010, the Georgetown BID put on a holiday street fair in December called Merriment in Georgetown. While the first year was cursed with wickedly cold weather, the subsequent years seemed like qualified successes to GM: not exactly Christkindl Market, but a good start for something that could eventually grow into a really special tradition.

Sadly the BID decided last year to no longer hold the street fair. It simply was not producing enough of a splash at the merchants’ cashiers to make it worth while. But the BID is carrying on with festive events nonetheless. One thing they are actually extending this year is the free pedicab rides they offered just one day last year. Each Saturday from Nov. 24th through December 15th, there will be free pedicab rides around the neighborhood. Continue reading →

This afternoon at 4:00, four candidates for the DC Council At-Large election will be debating at St. John’s Church. The debate will be hosted by the Georgetown BID. The invited candidates are current Councilmembers Vincent Orange (D) and Michael Brown (pretend I but really a D), and challengers David Grosso (I) and Mary Beatty (R).

GM has a particular affinity for the At Large elections because it is the only election where independents like him can actually have an effective voice. And this year there appears to be a genuine race on for the second slot (Vincent Orange, despite embarrassing himself during the interim chairman selection, is expected to easily win the “Democratic” seat). Brown has been dogged by accusations that he can’t manage finances after his entire campaign war chest vanished. But he can rely on great name recognition and solid support throughout the city. Continue reading →

Yesterday, the Georgetown BID announced that they had identified a new CEO following the departure of Jim Bracco in July. Starting in mid-October Joe Sternlieb will take the job. (Actually, it’s a bit of a title change for the job. When Bracco held it, it was called “executive director”).

Sternlieb is a familiar face around DC. He once served as an ANC commissioner in Dupont. In the 90s, he was staff director on the DC Council of Economic Development, where one of his achievements was to usher the law authorizing the creation of BIDs. Following his tenure there, he joined up with the newly created Downtown BID. Serving as deputy director of the BID, Sternlieb was very involved with the creation of the Circulator system (and is a big proponent of streetcars). Continue reading →